1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a computer system for enabling access of records in electronic form via a network, such as an intranet, which includes a facility for delivery of messages. In its particular aspects, the present invention relates to such a system in which audible messages are generated by text-to-speech synthesis. The invention is particularly useful in the medical domain in conjunction with Computer-based Patient Record (CPR) systems and in the provision of alerts to physicians and other health care professionals.
2. Description of the Related Art
CPR systems maintain multimedia patient records of one or more health care institutions such as histories, reports, charts, and images in electronic digital form in a server system so that authorized users may access the records remotely employing user equipment, such as desktop or portable computing devices, coupled to the server system via wired and/or wireless network paths.
Speech interfaces for computer systems can employ speech recognition for command and control, thereby providing for hands-free navigation by the user. Also, useful information can be optimally arranged on screen and the user can remain focussed thereon by eliminating distracting and space consuming Graphical User Interface (GUI) control objects such as buttons, hot spots and/or menus that are typically used with a mouse or other pointing device. Speech recognition for dictation can enable health care personnel to enter reports when their hands are busy or where touching a keyboard would be a hygiene risk.
Text-to-speech synthesis can provide background notification of events and status changes, such as printer activity, by speech synthesized messages thereby avoiding visual distraction of the user. The use of synthesized speech for audible messages also minimizes storage requirements for the messages.
A Java.RTM. Speech Application Programming Interface (API) is substantially available to support speech synthesis, command-and-control recognizers and dictation systems. The Java.RTM. Speech API includes a Java.RTM. Speech Markup Language (JSML) for speech synthesis and a Java.RTM. Speech Grammar Format (JSGF) for speech recognizers. JSGF provides rule-based grammar indicating possible alternative commands, actions, objects, and their relative probabilities. JSML supports explicit specifications for delimited words and phrases such as structure (paragraph and sentence), special handling of dates and times, breaks, and prosodic information (speaking rate, volume, baseline pitch, pitch range).
In hospital environments, health care personnel are not always at their user equipment devices and there is a need to issue alerts and reminders via the CPR system which can be received via a variety of message delivery vehicles, such as voice mail, pager, and electronic mail. Further, there is a need that such alerts and reminders when delivered as audible messages have appropriate clarity, structure, and prosodic characteristics, so they are easily understandable and receive attention appropriate to the nature of the information conveyed.